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NewMediaMetrics: TV Networks Could Save Billions

LEAP™ Index Can Predict Which Shows Will Fail/Succeed at the Earliest Stages

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Feb 25, 2013) - TV networks could save a cumulative sum of $4 billion if they determined their audience's Emotional Attachment™ to prospective shows at the early stages of idea generation, according to brand-strategy firm NewMediaMetrics.

Injecting huge sums of money into the production of numerous TV series each year and then waiting to see how those shows perform on air has always been the modus operandi in Hollywood, said Denise Larson, co-founder of NewMediaMetrics.

Larson said Hollywood could learn from consumer-brand companies, which do not put new products on store shelves to wait to see if they sell, but rather evaluate ideas rigorously before development begins.

"The amount of money wasted on TV pilots is mind-boggling," she told Broadcasting & Cable this month.

Founded in 2004, NewMediaMetrics has been helping brand marketers and content-development companies Leverage Emotional Attachment for Profit, a process the company calls LEAP™.

Over the past eight years, Larson and business partner Gary Reisman have used the LEAP™ Content-Investment Marketplace to accurately predict 67% of the new TV series that would fail in the first season.

For example, some of the more recent shows NMM predicted would fail include, The Event (NBC); Lonestar (Fox); I Hate My Teenage Daughter (Fox); Pan Am (ABC); Animal Practice (NBC); and Made in Jersey (CBS).

However, as far back as 2006, the LEAP™ Index showed that Brothers & Sisters (ABC) would be successful. It also showed that Fox would have a hit in Glee and CBS would have one in NCIS: Los Angeles in 2009.

Among shows that debuted last fall, NMM saw that NBC's Revolution and Chicago Fire would be winners.

Revolution averaged eight million viewers last season and returns from hiatus next month. Besides the TV show predictions, NMM employs the LEAP™ Index to align more than 350 consumer brands with the TV, digital video and cross-platform content they are most likely to engage with.

About New Media MetricsNewMediaMetrics is a content-investment activation and alignment company. The company works with content developers to predict the marketplace value (or audience draw) in the early stages of development via the LEAP™ Content Investment Marketplace. Using LEAP™ developers can determine whether content is worthy of production investment. NMM also works with brand marketers to quantify the value of aligning their brands with specific TV, digital video and cross-platform media to aid their strategic media allocations.